This question is more specific than asking, “Does God love me?” This is asking whether Jesus, God the Son, loves you. Although we might be tempted to say that if God the Father does something, then that automatically means God the Son does it as well, this is not always the case. For example, God the Son died on the cross but God the Father did not.

So what does the Bible say about who Jesus loves?

Jesus Loves Believers

Jesus’ most explicit statements about loving others are ones that He said to His disciples. He tells them things like,

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love” (John 15:9).

But it is also clear from Scripture that Jesus loves the Church, which includes all of us who trust in Jesus today. Paul says,

“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (Ephesians 5:25).

Finally, we can say that Jesus loves us as individual believers as well. Paul states,

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

So if you are a believer in Jesus, then He definitely loves you. But what if you aren’t a believer?

Jesus Loves Unbelievers

Scripture also teaches that Jesus loves unbelievers:

“God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

“While we were still sinners” is one of the greatest phrases in the Bible. Christ didn’t wait for you to be righteous before He demonstrated His love for you by dying on the cross. He loved you before you were even born.

There are at least two examples in the Gospels where Jesus loved people who weren’t His followers. In the first example, Jesus loved a large crowd that surely consisted of some unbelievers:

“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36).

The second example is with the rich young ruler, who asked Jesus what he needed to do in order to inherit eternal life. Once Jesus told him to sell all of his possessions, he went away disheartened and unwilling to do so. In the midst of this encounter, we read this wonderful statement:

“And Jesus, looking at him, loved him” (Mark 10:21).

Jesus loved the rich young ruler, even though he knew that this young man wasn’t willing to surrender all to follow Him.

God is Love and Jesus is God

Lastly, Scripture explicitly claims that “God is love” (1 John 4:8) and that Jesus is God (John 1:1, 18). Jesus as “the exact imprint of his nature” (Hebrews 1:3) reflects the character of the Father, and this includes the Father’s love.

Jesus said that He and the Father are one (John 10:30) and that when you see Him you see the Father (John 14:9). Jesus loves as the Father loves and “God so loved the world” (John 3:16).

No matter who is reading this, yes, Jesus loves you!

And if you trust in Christ for salvation, then rejoice in His love today.

However, if you are not trusting in Christ, then you are rejecting God’s love. You behold the love of Christ and his death on the cross for you and say in response, “No thanks.” The consequences of such an action is eternal separation from this loving God.

You may have heard John 3:16 before:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

But just two verses later, we read:

“…but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (John 3:18).

If you have not trusted in Christ, I encourage you to read the Gospel of John in the New Testament. John wrote his Gospel “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (20:31).